The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and a processing method which can efficiently correct and collect topographical information. More particularly, it relates to an image processing apparatus and processing method which are well-suited to provide topographical information to vehicles or robots having an automatic traveling function.
A map which indicates topographical information, namely, the arrangement of roads, buildings, obstacles, etc. is indispensible to a traveling type robot. In a conventional traveling type robot, input images in the form of topographical information have been handled independently for respective frames of data. In, for example, a system having a plurality of photographing devices, the outputs of the respective photographing devices have been stored in independent memory devices, and images inputted in time series have also been stored in respectively separate memory devices.
With such a storage method, however, the information is overlappingly stored, and hence, a large storage capacity is required. This has resulted in the disadvantage that, in determining the action to be taken by the traveling type robot, a considerable effort is required for extracting essential information.